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June 17, 2021
Dear Neighbors and Friends,
I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well, staying healthy, and looking out for your neighbors and friends in these difficult times.
Today’s COVID metrics are again relatively low today. Case counts continue to be lower than they were last week. Hospitalizations are down, and only one death was reported today.
I forgot to mention yesterday that the new numbers are in for the prevalence of COVID variants in Oregon. The Delta variant, which has proven extremely dangerous in India and very infectious in the U.K., is now here in Oregon, but only 10 cases have been identified so far. You can see all the latest variant numbers further down in the newsletter.
Today on the Senate floor we paid a bipartisan tribute to the memories of two former legislators and Secretaries of State, the late Dennis Richardson and the late Norma Paulus (via two Senate Concurrent Resolutions, SCR 7. and SCR 8.). Many humorous and uplifting memories were shared by a number of legislators. It was a nice moment.
There were a couple of near party-line votes related to criminal justice reform, but most of the bills passed handily and without any nail-biting today. (With Senator Manning gone, likely for the remainder of the session, the margins are tight. With Senator Johnson frequently voting with the Republicans, that means all the other Democrats must support a measure if the Republicans are united in opposition.)
We ended today’s session with a bipartisan singing of Happy Birthday to two of our members, Senators Jama and Courtney in advance of their birthdays tomorrow.
We won’t have a floor session tomorrow morning, as we wait for more bills to come out of Ways and Means. As a result, we’re looking at long days and evenings next week as we approach the end of the session.
Yesterday, Ways and Means voted on 24 bills. You can see them here.
Tomorrow morning they’ll be voting on an additional 35 bills, including our two major environmental priorities—the 100% Clean Electricity bill and the Recycling Modernization Act. I’m delighted to see these important bills are on the way to passage. You can see the full list here.
Please stay safe and let me know if you have any questions about information in today’s newsletter.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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New COVID Cases: OHA reports 300 new COVID cases today. The cumulative number of cases in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic is 205,698.
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Variant COVID Cases: Here are this week’s case counts for the COVID variants in Oregon, cumulative from the beginning of the pandemic:: 1,433 (up from 1,240) cases of the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant, 286 cases (up from 200) of the P.1 (Brazilian) variant, and 125 (up from 108) cases of the B.1.351 (South African) variant. In addition, we are now seeing 291 (up from 279) cases of the B.1.427 variant, 737 (up from 716) of the B.1.429 variant, and 10 cases of the new B.1.617.2 (Delta). OHA is now producing a Variant Dashboard, providing current variant case numbers for the state as a whole and for various parts of the state. It’s updated each Wednesday.
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Positive Test Results: OHA reported 390 positive tests today. The cumulative total of positive test results since the beginning of the pandemic is now 298,671.
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Total Tests: OHA reported an additional 11,952 tests today. Our cumulative total of reported tests is 5,300,695.
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Positivity Rate: The test positivity ratio for Oregon today is 2.6%.
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Hospitalization Information:
- Patients Currently with Confirmed COVID-19: 151 (11 fewer than yesterday)
- ICU Patients Confirmed w COVID-19: 37 (same as yesterday).
- Available ICU Beds: 151 (15 more than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 526 (37 more than yesterday).
- Confirmed COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 19 (1 fewer as yesterday)
- Available Ventilators: 773 (4 fewer than yesterday).
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 1 additional COVID death today. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is 2,745.
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Vaccinations:
- As of the end of yesterday, here are the latest numbers:
- New Immunizations Reported Today: 16,106
- 8,643 were conducted and reported yesterday
- 7,463 were conducted earlier, but the reports were received yesterday (there can potentially be a three-day window for reporting)
- The 7-day running average is now 15,444 doses per day.
- Total First and Second Doses Administered So Far: 4,270,048
- 2,415,419 Pfizer doses
- 1,692,352 Moderna doses
- 160,253 Johnson & Johnson doses
- Total Oregonians vaccinated so far: 2,335,586
- 2,065,711 now fully vaccinated with two doses
- The number of Oregonians who still need to get a first dose for Oregon to reach the 70% threshold is now 55,697 (down by 4,928). We remain on track to hit the threshold by the end of the month.
- To date, 5,415,105 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon. (That’s 9,520 more than yesterday, for a total of 77,500 additional doses so far this week.)
- 78.9% of these doses have been administered so far. The national average is now 83.5%.
- 57.4% of Oregonians have received at least one dose (64.7% of those 16 and older, 68.3% of those 18+, which is the CDC standard).
- 50.7% of Oregonians are now fully vaccinated (58.0% of those 16 and older).
 Additional Brief Updates
- Even as there has been a real focus on and enormous success with developing COVID vaccines, more of a quiet effort (but well-funded) on developing an anti-viral drug to help people after they’ve been infected. Here's more about that.
- The A. Times has a story about reopening from frontline workers’ perspective. They hope that customers will continue to wear masks and be honest about whether or not they’ve been vaccinated. Read more.
- Can you mix and mass different vaccines to get your second dose? Here's the latest.
New Vaccination Dashboard from OHA
OK, vaccination wonks, here’s something for you. Today OHA launched a new version of its vaccination metrics dashboard. Changes include race and ethnicity vaccination rates released at the regional level and age groups for 60 years and older reported as 10-year groups. New graphs now include people remaining to reach 65% vaccinated in each population, by age group and county as well as by race and ethnicity and region.
You can also view data over time by date of first dose to understand vaccination uptake, or by date of last dose to understand when the vaccination series was completed.
Check out this new version here.
Where Are Today’s Cases?
If we put together the positive test results and new “presumptive cases” reported today, the overall number of new cases reported is 300. Here is today’s breakdown by county:
Baker (6)
Benton (5)
Clackamas (22)
Clatsop (6)
Columbia (8)
Coos (2)
Crook (2)
Curry (7)
Deschutes (11)
Douglas (15)
Harney (5)
Hood River (1)
Jackson (14)
Jefferson (3)
Josephine (15)
Klamath (5)
Lane (26)
Lincoln (7)
Linn (18)
Malheur (5)
Marion (27)
Morrow (2)
Multnomah (35)
Polk (10)
Umatilla (20)
Union (1)
Wasco (2)
Washington (17)
Yamhill (3)
And the Death
Oregon’s 2,745th death is a 76-year-old man from Lane County who tested positive on June 9 and died on June 15 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend.
Want to See Past Newsletters?
If there was COVID-related information in a past newsletter that you want to go back to, but find you’ve deleted it, you can always go to my legislative website (senatordembrow.com), click on “News and Information,” and you’ll find them all there. Also, if someone forwarded you this newsletter and you’d like to get it directly, you can sign up for it there.
AND FINALLY,
Here again are some resources that you will find useful
If the above links are not providing you with answers to your questions or directing you to the help that you need, please consider me and my office to be a resource. We’ll do our best to assist you or steer you in the right direction.
Best,
 Senator Michael Dembrow
District 23
email: Sen.MichaelDembrow@oregonlegislature.gov
web: www.senatordembrow.com
phone: 503-281-0608
mail: 900 Court St NE, S-407, Salem, OR, 97301
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